Professional Social Computing… what in the world does that mean?

Greetings, all. As I am the Practice Manager for Avalon’s newest practice area (Social Computing), I thought it is only appropriate to share what I am going to focus our efforts on and how I view our evolving world of social computing. Like any evolving technology, social computing means many different to many different people.

As I write this blog in the beginning of 2009 I have to assume that the current perception of social computing is Facebook. My assumption is obviously not an act of genius (quite the contrary) but a simple observation of everyone I know (spanning many generations) coming to the realization that this site is simply a life-changing platform. I will assume if you are reading this you are already somewhat familiar with Facebook and will not bore you with its capabilities. I am much more interested in how to extend similar capabilities (and more importantly, the “intent”) into the professional space.

I could easily turn this first entry into a War and Peace epic (ok… I am probably dating myself with this comment) but I will stop with the following outline of how I view the current Social Computing space and how I will attempt to break it down in future posts. My proposed tiers are not necessarily mutually exclusive but hopefully provide a framework for options to approach this new space. So this is my “stake in the ground” to make sense around the current state of Professional Social Computing technology.

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Avalon Consulting, LLC transforms data investments into actionable business results through the visioning and implementation of Big Data, Web Presence, Content Publishing, and Enterprise Search solutions. We are the trusted partner to over one hundred clients, primarily Global 2000 companies, public agencies, and institutions of higher learning.